Autism

It's not a secret that my son David has Autism. It's not a secret that it is a daily struggle... for everyone. That is not to minimize what David must think of the world around him. He recently aquired a Ipad2 to install his taptotalk program to faciltate his communication, which consists of pointing and grunts without his ability to point at a picture that talk and asks for a drink. He can get and pour water himself from the fridge. But, a drink of soda requires, getting the tablet, turning it on, opening the program, touching drink then touching soda. A pain, for sure. How would you feel going through that process for just ONE request? But, I digress... So, after David goes to sleep... I begin to browse the tablet and it's apps and find myself on youtube, searching under Autism. Bad bad mistake... I found hundreds of video tapes by parents, teachers, friends and politicians concerning Autism, the causes, the empathy and the apathy. OH the apathy. I saw Kathy Gifford and her humiliation of an Autistic boy as she wrote a song about his lonliness. Disgusting, I heard Howard Stern admonish her disgustingly...as he wrote a song about her husband's infidelity. I saw the stats and science on the link between mercury and autism... THAT disgusted me. Youtube... late at night, not so much on my list of do again real soon. However, I must tell you that the IPAD youtube link enlightened me that David and I and our family are not alone in this horrific on hold pattern of self injurious behavior, frustration, lack of communication and indifference by mainstream society. I am thankful for those that support research and have their fundraisers for those afflicted but I wonder how many of them have lived in the trenches for the last 20 years. Just blogging out loud... hopefully my next entry will have a point.